Florida Extends Early Voting Hours

(NEWSER) - The start of early voting in Florida today brought hordes to polling places, forcing voters to contend with long lines and voting machine failures, the Miami Herald reports. Miami-Dade and Broward counties added a million registered voters each to their rolls this year. The crowds signaled the usefulness of the state’s early voting provision, started in 2002, but the robust turnout still peeved some. More»

Sample sizes and enthusiasm gaps can skew results

(NEWSER) - Exit polls can be addictive for those who can't take Election Day suspense, but poll analyst Nate Silver recommends you resist the temptation. Here's why:

1. Exit polls have high margins of error because they are taken at only a few precincts in a state.
2. Exit polls overstated Democratic support in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
3. Exit polls overstated Obama’s support by an average of 7 points in the primary season.

Ballot denial, long lines likely in battleground states

(NEWSER) - With record-shattering turnout anticipated, voter-rights groups predict contentious voting in battleground states, where Republicans are accused of disenfranchising new voters—who are overwhelmingly Democrat. In Florida, a “no match, no vote” standard denies ballots to people whose registration info clashes with government records, an obstacle not unique to that state, the Los Angeles Times reports. More»

Close races plus potential voting chaos could make for a challenge

(NEWSER) - Missouri is one of several states anticipated to have voting problems next week, but nobody is sure just how big they might be, the Boston Globe reports. The potential is huge, though, in a sharply divided state where John McCain and Barack Obama are polling dead even and a legion of new voting laws and machines await testing. More»

Lines overwhelming at FL early voting sites

(NEWSER) - Early voters in Florida, where polling places opened Monday, endured daunting lines and 2- to 5-hour waits to cast their ballots, reports the Miami Herald. Democrats contend that the blame goes to a law passed in 2005 cutting the number of hours per day that early voting is available from 12 to 8. Early voters tend to tilt Democratic, and the law was passed by Florida's Republican legislature and governor. More»